May 3, 2022
Dear friends,
When I studied at St. Andrews University, May 1st was a huge celebration. It was called “May Day.” The student population had this tradition; on April 30th, everyone would stay up all night, then they would gather on the beach by the castle at sunrise on May 1st and would all run into the North Sea together as soon as the bagpiper started playing. I know what you are thinking, can anything be more Scottish than most of the words in that sentence? Also, you may be thinking, why would anyone do that? Because it was tradition, sure, but I also think it is because it was something we all did TOGETHER.
My workout group has a term for everything. One of those terms is an acronym, CSAUP. CSAUPs are things like all-night races, mud runs, obstacle courses, that kind of stuff. The acronym stands for Completely Stupid and Utterly Pointless. Why do things like pushing your body to these extremes for nothing but a good story at the end? And the answer is because it is something that we did, TOGETHER. By doing this TOGETHER, we formed closer bonds and relationships that are outside accomplishment or sense.
In a week and a half, we are having our celebration Sunday of our capital funds campaign. This has not been typical of a lot of campaigns of which I’ve previously been a part. I’ve gotten to hear the stories and get to know people in new kinds of ways. I’ve also heard the question, and seen many attempts at answering the question, why are we doing this? I think the answer goes toward my previous couple of paragraphs because 60 years ago a group of people came together to form a community of faith. They did this TOGETHER. And in so doing, throughout the years lives have been transformed, and the lives of those who came before us were strengthened because they did this together, and it strengthened their faith, their marriages, their families, and their community. We are trying to do the same thing. Doing things TOGETHER for the community. Because there are a lot of things we could be doing with our lives. But by doing these things TOGETHER, we continue the story of Embry Hills and continue the story of our community’s witness of faith.
Peace,
Jordan